Category Archives: Interviews

I recently conducted an interview with science fiction author Darrell Bain. He’s currently promoting his newest release, Savage Survival. So, we discussed his newest novel as well as some of his favorites…

Darrell Bain: This is a story of survival, of an eleven year old girl, kidnapped along with millions of other humans by invulnerable aliens. It goes from her first horrifying experience after being thrown among undisciplined humans with no parents or guardian to help her, and on through a succession of terrible and harsh environments, where her only means of survival are her innate sense of honor, her bravery, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of most humans. It is a coming of age novel, describing her struggles to survive as she grows into a young woman, always wondering what the aliens have in mind for the few who will live through the cruel winnowing process. I love this heroine, Lyda Brightner. She is the epitome of a strong female character.

Angela/SciFiChick: For those who haven’t read The Summoner yet, can you give us a brief synopsis?

Gail Martin: In The Summoner, Tris Drayke discovers his rare magical talent as he flees for his life after the murder of his family. He is a Summoner, a mage who can mediate among the living, the dead and undead. In a world where ghosts are real, the undead respect an uneasy truce with the living and an ancient evil is about to reawaken, Tris is the Winter KingdomsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ last best hopeÃ¢â‚¬â€if he can keep his new-found magic from destroying him.

Angela: Where do you get your ideas for your unique characters?

GM: Sometimes there’s a hint of a historical person in a character; that’s true with one of the minor characters in book 3 that I’m working on now. But most of the time, strange as this sounds, the characters kind of walk on stage in my mind and demand to be written into the story. When I need to know more about them, I picture them in my mind and ask them and they “tell” me. They have very distinct personalities, and I can’t force them to do something that isn’t right for their personality; it wouldn’t work.

Back in June, I reviewed Bitterwood which fast became one of my favorites books of the year. Author James Maxey agreed to an interview… and an extra bonus:
Check back tomorrow to enter a giveaway for a signed copy of Bitterwood!

Angela/SciFiChick: For those who haven’t read Bitterwood yet, can you give us a brief synopsis?

James Maxey: Bant Bitterwood’s family was killed by dragons twenty years before the novel begins. Since then, he’s led a silent and deadly campaign of revenge against the dragons who rule his world, striking from the shadows whenever the opportunity arises. Bitterwood has become a legendary figure; a hero to humans, a bogeyman to dragons, but no one is even certain if he’s real. Some dragons think that any human who kills a dragon just places the blame on the mythical figure. When the novel opens, the dragon king Albekizan’s favorite son is killed and Bitterwood is blamed. Albekizan decides that there’s only one certain way to rid his kingdom of the danger of Bitterwood–by killing every last human in the kingdom. The novel unfolds against a backdrop of impending genocide as a small handful of humans and dragons work to avert the tragedy.

Angela: How did you decide to make dragons such major characters in your story?

JM: Dragons are just cool! I didn’t want them to be simply big scaly monsters. The story is more dramatic because my dragons are capable of love and anger, hope and despair. If a dragon were to pick it up and read Bitterwood, he’d be able to think he’d be reading a book where the dragons are the protagonists and Bitterwood is just a terrorist. It’s not a book with clear-cut lines of right and wrong; hopefully readers will find some of the moral situations within it thought provoking. To me, the greatest drama happens not by setting good guys up against cartoonish bad guys, but to pit sympathetic characters with conflicting yet understandable goals against each other.

The other day, I reviewed the debut novel of the talented Jennifer Rardin.
Below is an informal interview with the Indiana-born author (a fellow Hoosier!):

Angela/SciFiChick: Tell us a little about Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

Jennifer Rardin: The story takes place in Miami, where CIA assassins Jaz Parks and her boss, the vampire Vayl, have arrived on New YearÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Eve. Their mission is to take out a plastic surgeon with terrorist ties named Assan. But first they have to figure out who his new, powerful partners are. The plot thickens like good, spicy sausage gravy as you race through the book. You also need to know that Jaz is struggling with major issues from her past that are affecting her in fairly bizarre and sometimes frightening ways.

Angela: Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience in writing.

Rardin: What does it say about you when, by the time youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re eighteen youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve already read every book you really care to from your local library? Um, get a life, girl! Yeah, there for a while IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d be reading four books at once, living out separate fantasies, all of them heroic and utterly fascinating. I canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t resist a good story. Not the soap opera kind. Nope, never was hooked on those. The kind where decisions matter, good can triumph over evil and mundane crap like taking out the trash can transform into adventure when you find a demon munching on your garbage.

Pete Tzinski, an editor at BBT Magazine, has begun a new project – God in the Machine. In order to promote his new online serial, we decided to do an informal interview to give readers more information…

Pete:God in the Machine is a science fiction series. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d trot out the old Ã¢â‚¬Å“in the tradition ofÃ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â line, except that if I tell you what the direct parents are of the seriesÃ¢â‚¬Â¦itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll give away plot details from later on. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the story of a robot named Loeb Ã¢â‚¬â€œ and his apparent companion, a bigger robot named Max Ã¢â‚¬â€œ who are caught in an electromagnetic storm which, instead of destroying them, brings them Ã¢â‚¬Å“awake.Ã¢â‚¬Â They suddenly think and, more importantly, they feel. The problem is, to the rest of the galaxy of robots (and there are only robots left), this is nothing but damage to be repaired. To start with, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the story of them surviving.

The series is about quite a lot more than that, ultimately, but thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s its humble origin. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s where we begin.

Science fiction romance is a small subgenre. Thankfully, I was introduced to Susan Grant’s work last year, and soon began buying up all of her books that I could find. Frequent visitors to this site know that this author has fast become a favorite of mine.

Angela/SciFiChick: Tell us a little about How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days.

Susan Grant: ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the third and final book in the rather light-hearted Otherworldly Men series concerning a California political family (think: Kennedys) and the alien invasion they must thwart. Ã¢â‚¬Å“ET,Ã¢â‚¬Â however, takes a more serious turn due to some of the subject matter. Reef, the newly dismantled bio-engineered assassin from book 1 and 2 must finish his rehabilitation as a normal human in the home of a suburban single mom and her two children. I feel it stands alone well if you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t mind a few pages to get caught up with a series book.

Besides having the privilege to preview M.D. BenoitÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s new book Synergy and interview her today, it happens to be a very special dayÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ Happy Birthday, M.D.! Hope you have a great one!

SciFiChick: Describe your upcoming book, Synergy.Benoit: Here is what the book blurb says:
Ã¢â‚¬Å“Cloning. Accelerated growth of replacement organs. DNA repair. In 2096, all are possible. And forbidden by law. Three people will defy these laws to save the life of eleven-year-old Zelimir, who will die a slow, painful death from a horrifying genetic disease. Zelimir’s father hires Torver Lockwood and Demetria Greyson to find a cure for his son. Both have a personal stake in this illegal research. A cure may help explain why Torver is able to see into people’s pasts and why Demetria has visions about a violent future. But, once developed, the solution could be used as a powerful weapon that can target specific genes. With the chance that the cure may fall into the wrong hands and start a new reign of terror, will Torver keep the secret to himself, at the cost of one small life?Ã¢â‚¬Â